Smart gals get what they need for their businesses and their lives as inexpensively as possible. While we’ve always been on the frugal side (cheap, cheap, cheap), lately we’ve been delighted with the results we’ve achieved using free web-based software.

Another mompreneur told us about Elance.com – it’s a great way for small businesses to get the help they need. Elance is like eBay, but only for freelance business services. We’ve used Elance to bolster our SEO efforts, but we know other mompreneurs who have used Elance to find freelancers to do administrative work as well as graphic and web design. Basically, you post a job and then you can invite specific firms to bid on the work or else you can leave it for open bid. It’s easy to vet prospective freelancers because, like eBay, people are encouraged to leave feedback after the completion of the work. We loved Elance and are waiting for another chance to use it.

We recently found a slew of fabulous prospective employees using craigslist.ca. The response to our ad was so overwhelming that we had to deactivate it after just a few days. It was a fast, efficient and free way to find new staff.

We also use craigslist and kijiji.ca to offload fleece scraps and other things we can’t use anymore.

We love SurveyMonkey for free questionnaires and surveys, and lots of mompreneurs tell us they can’t live without MailChimp for e-mail marketing.

What free software/web sites do you use to help you keep your business and life running smoothly?

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